Let there be Light
Great thread. Great Info. My take , they need to organize things a bit. (Easy to say , difficult to implement , but has to start someday.....)
Read a little bit in Times of India. Sharing it.
Bubble bursts: Pilots now join jobless list
Manju V | TNN
Mumbai: Nightmarish times are back for Indian pilots fresh out of flying schools. As many as 600 Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL)-holders are currently jobless and engaged in a nerve-wracking competition to enter that coveted cockpit even as vacancies for the post of trainee pilots have become as rare as on-time flight departures.
On Monday morning, 400 pilots appeared for Kingfisher Airlines’s written tests conducted in a college in Kandivli (E). “Although the number of vacancies this time was not known, the airline had about 250 candidates for its written tests held in January to fill just four posts of ATR trainee pilots. The two pilots selected for A320 trainee pilot jobs were self-financed candidates, which means they were to spend about Rs 20 lakh each on their type-rating (training to fly a particular aircraft),’’ says an aspirant.
On Saturday, as many as 550 pilots trooped into a school in Air-India Colony, Kalina, for written tests for 15 trainee pilot jobs (General Category, the rest were reserved for SCs/STs). “We heard that about 250 applications were rejected. Considering that not all pilots who applied would be jobless—since an AI job is the most coveted one in the industry—by a conservative estimate there must be about 600 jobless CPL holders out there,’’ says a senior commander, whose son managed to clear the “tough’’ AI written tests.
“The Kingfisher Airlines written tests as usual were very tough,” says another aspiring 21-year-old, who has appeared for seven written tests until now with no luck. Poaching deters freshers’ prospects
Mumbai: An increasing number of Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL)-holders are struggling for jobs. One of the 400 candidates who appeared for a Kingfisher Airlines written test for the post of ATR trainee pilots on Monday said, “There are a lot of people out there with either the right contacts or money.’’
A student spends anything between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 30 lakh to get a CPL. Most take bank loans, and of late the aviation boom had attracted aspirants even from not so well-to-do families.
However, there are jobs in the flying training industry which, observers say, CPL holders are probably unaware of. “We’re offering Rs 1.5 lakh per month to fresh CPL holders to work as instructors, but there are no takers,’’ rues Capt Yashraj Tongia of Yash Air, a flying school based in Ujjain. Capt Tongia says that the flying training industry needs about 50 instructors right now.
“What is the definition of jobless? If one doesn’t get an airlines job, that doesn’t mean there are no other pilot jobs in the aviation industry,’’ he adds. “Even airline jobs will be generated soon, because of an average of 150 aircraft being imported each year. There will be an annual demand for 1,200 pilots at least for the next five years.’’
Another reason for rookie CPL holders being shunned is the pilot-poaching phenomenon in the aircraft charter industry.
P K Ratta, Chairman, Million Air, the Raymonds aircraft charter company, says, “Pilot poaching is happening big time but no one will hire a fresh CPL holder. Why should I hire them and train them only for others to poach? Moreover, corporates prefer highly experienced commanders and first officers, and so foreign pilots are the only solution.’’
Airline commanders opine that it is high time the process of replacing foreign pilots with Indians began. “The airline I work for has 15 foreign co-pilots when so many Indians are jobless. It again took in 52 expats for senior commander’s post last month. Now they are only hiring foreign commanders for their Europe-US leg,’’ says an airline commander. Another international carrier has kept three of its long-haul aircraft on ground for the last one month for want of experienced commanders. “They won’t train their numerous experienced commanders of medium-haul aircraft. They would rather prefer to hire expatriates,’’ says a commander.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that the Indian airline industry is seeing a glut of fresh CPL holders. In the late ‘70s, the Sanjay Gandhi report which was prepared for the same reasons put a ban on airlines recruiting foreign pilots as scores of Indians were jobless. “The report said that an expat pilot can be brought in only for six months, and it became a rule. Later, in the ’90s, East West Airlines and Damania got that rule changed,’’ says Capt M Ranganathan, a B 737 commander.